Fountain of Youth

photo credit:  Shutterstock

Obviously exhausted from his 12-hour flight from Melbourne, his hands were tucked into his cargo shorts’ pockets.  James Celdran was standing next to the foot-board of the hospital bed while blankly staring through the only window of room 208.  The cloud was low, heavy and dark; a few coconut trunks and palms were visibly swaying in the wind— silhouetting against the grey skies!  As seen from the second level of Mlang Specialist Medical Center, a heavy downpour was imminent… but he didn’t seem to care about Typhoon Vinta at the moment.
  
James’ 71-year old grandma was ill.  In the past few days, the world for him was an absolute grey monochrome!  The dullness outdoors was permeating through the window glass panel, softly illuminating this heart-breaking scene in the room.  As the nurse gently administered a drug via an IV line, the patient groaned.

“It’ll be enough to alleviate the pain.  I’ll be back in 15 minutes to check her BP.”  The nurse left before James could even acknowledge.

He sat on the bedside bench, took hold of his granny’s wrinkled right hand and clasped it tightly in his.  It was pale and cold.  He squeezed it, looked straight into the eyes of his terminally ill grandmother and noticed those were welling up in tears.  James gently raised and placed his Lola Isobel’s frail knuckles on his forehead— as an absolute sign of Filipino respect and accepting a blessing from elderlies.

As the rhythmic beeping of the hospital machine continued to saturate the room, James got drowned in his emotions!  Then, gradually, those beeps interestingly turned into a ringing bell of an ice cream vendor peddling on the road thirty-five years ago…

That delicate hand he was currently clutching in the ICU was healthy, rosy, and warm back then.  It was the same hand that would hand him— a six-year old James— some coins so he could buy and enjoy his favourite ice cream flavour!  Those were the days when his granny’s creative hands would sew him countless pairs of comfortable pyjamas.  Those were the years when this strong and healthy hand would securely hold young James’ small hands while they were together doing their weekly marketing at the busy public market during Saturdays.


ONE SATURDAY MORNING IN April 1985, James and his granny were about to cross the street after getting off from a jeepney.  He, as a young boy, grabbed his grandma’s hand… but he wondered why her grip wasn’t tight enough?!

Then James suddenly realised that he’s back to the present time in that ICU— holding his ailing grandma’s delicate hand!

“A…a… I’m se… se… scared…” the patient mumbled.  Then a plump grain of tear suddenly ruptured and ran down her cheeks.

James couldn’t deny that his granny didn’t want to die!  Not yet, he thought.  Not at seventy-one; his Lola Isobel was still too young to die, indeed!


OUTSIDE, A HEAVY DOWNPOUR COMMENCED... gradually turning the town’s streets into infinite shallow streams!  At that very moment, James and his family could only wish that these flood waters would eventually turn into a fountain.  Yes, a fountain of youth.


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